The outcome and closeness of the result of the general election should tell some basic things to the parties which will occupy the House of Representatives. They include that the people who bothered to vote do not really see much difference between the two parties; that they are not all that satisfied with their policies; that they do not trust either of them enough to give one an absolute majority. Reconfirmed Prime Minister Lawrence Gonzi said he was listening to what the people were saying - he got the message. Was he?
Yes, in so far as his new Cabinet was concerned, though a foreign diplomat told me coldly over the weekend that the ministers were unleavened with any new input, the Cabinet being made up of ministers, and not parliamentary secretaries. But let that be: Dr Gonzi did promote one parliamentary secretary and appoint six new ones as potential ministers-in-waiting.
What of other matters? It is too early to say, yet, but the one major policy decision already taken suggests that the PM did not hear the voters speaking out loudly enough. In its first meeting the Cabinet decided to take Malta into the Partnership for Peace. It was within its right to do so - except that nowhere in the 300+ promises to the electorate had it mentioned an intention to revert to an earlier decision by the Eddie Fenech Adami government which had been reversed by the Labour government of 1996-98.
The haste with which the decision was taken last week suggested that someone was breathing down the new government's neck. Some say that the American government has been doing some friendly persuasion not so far behind the scenes. Was it? The government will refute the suggestion. It has been saying that the step was required because Malta was losing out regarding information on security matters within the EU, and that membership would be beneficial to our Armed Forces, without prejudicing Malta's neutrality status.
If that was truly the case it is stranger still that the issue did not feature in the PN's electoral programme, or at least in any of the hundreds of electioneering speeches given by Lawrence Gonzi and his troops.
Worse still, the government did not feel the need to consult the Opposition on the matter. It would have been more than proper, given the people's message embodied in the general election, for the Prime Minister to consult the acting leader of the MLP. The outcome might have been the first disagreement between the two sides, or Charles Mangion might have said that Labour needed time to discuss the issue internally, and brought along disagreement after that.
Either outcome would still have left the government free to follow its selected course of action, but things would surely have been done much more properly and neatly. The election result and its messages should not be lost on the political class. No doubt about it, the government will want to govern, and the Opposition, whoever gets to lead it from June 5, will want to oppose. Those are their natural roles. But the people want more reflection, and fewer deaf ears.
Such reflection should be easier in those areas where considerable consensus is not only possible, but strongly required. Foreign Affairs is one such sector, education being another. Time and sense - or lack of it - will tell.